Stars & Empire 2: 10 More Galactic Tales (Stars & Empire Box Set Collection) Read online

  “I hope the flight bay is still intact,” Greg said his tone showing concern. “As much wreckage as we found in this corridor, I can just imagine what the flight bay might be like.”

  “The more I see of this ship, the more amazed I am,” commented Adam, looking into a room that seemed to be full of a lot of damaged electronic equipment. “The technology to build a ship like this is far more advanced than anything we have ever imagined possible.”

  “Some of their science and technology is incredible,” replied Jason in agreement, stepping up next to Adam and gazing into the room. There were shattered viewscreens and heavily damaged control consoles everywhere.

  “I wonder if this room had anything to do with their weapon systems?” Greg asked, intrigued. Just from looking, this room was obviously an important control room of some kind. He was still fascinated about what type of weapons these people had used. So far, Ariel had not revealed any of that information.

  “Hard to tell,” replied Jason, looking over at Greg. “I’m sure the control systems are somewhere. Give us time, Greg; we’ll find them.”

  Jason could just imagine the men and women who must have worked in this room. Thinking of them made Jason think about his own family down on Earth. If his sister could see him now, she would become unglued. If his overly protective sibling knew that he was deep inside a wrecked spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, she would totally freak out. Fortunately, this was something she would probably never know. Jason suspected that the government would be slapping an extremely high security clearance on any information about the wrecked human spaceship.

  “Let’s go on down the corridor,” ordered Jason, ready to move on. “I can see the next hatch up ahead.”

  “At least Lisa has an easy and exciting job now,” Adam said as he turned to follow Jason. “I didn’t think we were ever going to pry her away from the AI last night. Colonel Greene had to order her to go get some rest.”

  “Can’t say that I blame her,” Jason replied with a smile. “Ariel is a computer scientist’s dream come true.”

  “I noticed that Colonel Greene and Lisa were having a long conversation this morning before we left,” Greg commented. “I wonder what that was about?”

  “The AI,” Jason replied. “Colonel Greene and I made a list last night of what we wanted Lisa to talk to the AI about. We would like more information about the Human Federation of Worlds, as well as these Hocklyns that defeated them.”

  “Do you think we’re going to have to fight these Hocklyns someday?” Greg asked his eyes turning to look at Jason.

  He knew it would be in the future. Someday his great great grandchildren and their generation might be all that would stand between a free humanity and abject slavery. He didn’t want to think about the horror that might wait in the not so distant future.

  “Probably,” replied Jason, taking a deep breath. “I’m afraid we may not have any choice. From what Ariel has told us the Hocklyns are coming, and we have 268 years to prepare. We can only hope that’s time enough.”

  “If the Federation couldn’t stop them with their technology, what chance will we have?” asked Greg, wondering if fighting the Hocklyns was a hopeless task.

  “We’ll have time to prepare,” answered Jason. “From Ariel, we know what’s coming. Perhaps this time it will be different.”

  They had made it to the hatch. Reaching forward, Jason grasped the handle and was relieved when it turned easily. Pushing against it with his hand it swung open, revealing a flight of stairs that led downward.

  “This ship and its technology could make a big difference,” Adam said as they stepped through the hatch and started down the stairs. “If we can reverse engineer all of its systems, we can begin building our own fleet someday.”

  “The AI should help there,” added Greg, thinking about all the knowledge the AI might hold the key to. “It may have everything we need to build ships of this type or even more in its memory.”

  He wondered if his son would fly one of those new wondrous spaceships that lay in the future. Perhaps his son would even command a ship like this one.

  When they reached the next level, Jason found another hatch blocking their way. This hatch opened easily also and after stepping through, they walked down the next flight of stairs and entered a short corridor. Jason stopped and looked at what was in front of them. On his left side was a heavily armored hatch. Stepping forward he tried to open it, but the handle refused to budge.

  “I don’t think we’re getting that one open,” Greg commented. “It looks as if it’s really stuck.”

  “I think it’s the backup control room for the flight bay,” spoke Adam, recalling what the AI had said when she was giving them directions. “It’s probably locked down. We can’t open it until we have some power restored.”

  Jason nodded and turned around to the other side of the corridor. There was another hatch, and he stepped forward and turned the handle. It opened easily. It was the airlock!

  “The flight bay should be through here,” he said, stepping inside.

  A few moments later, the three exited the airlock and entered the flight bay. They had brought several large, portable lights, which Greg and Adam were carrying. Switching the lights on, they gazed in awe around them.

  There were half a dozen spacecraft in the bay. The two large Raven class shuttles were in the center and seemed to be undamaged. However, two of the smaller ships had suffered catastrophic damage. They seemed to be some type of fighter craft. Both had been tossed against the side of the flight bay, either during the explosion or during the crash landing. The two fighter craft were now nothing but mangled pieces of wreckage.

  “Don’t guess we’ll be flying those,” commented Greg with disappointment in his voice. He took several steps toward the two wrecked fighters to get a better look.

  He wondered what type of weapons had been on the space fighters. Some type of lasers or blasters, he thought. He really wanted to talk to the AI about the weapons the ship was equipped with. His curiosity about that was burning inside of him. These two fighter craft were something else he would now have to ask about.

  There were two smaller spacecraft on the other side of the big shuttles, and both of these seemed relatively intact. They were box shaped, with small stubby wings on the sides. Probably some type of small supply shuttle used between ships or to the surface.

  What held Jason’s gaze were the two large shuttles. Each was about forty feet long and fifteen feet wide at their widest point. Both shuttles had short wings for atmospheric use. The nose was tapered and some type of rocket engines were in the back. Jason knew, from his brief talk with Ariel about these shuttles that they didn’t utilize any type of fuel similar to what Earth was currently using.

  Greg walked excitedly over to the nearest shuttle. Shining his light across it, he noticed several hard points underneath the wings for missiles.

  “This thing is equipped for missiles!” Greg spoke with excitement in his voice. He then turned and walked over to the tapered nose and, examining it, noticed two indentations. Running his gloved hand over the indentations, he wondered what they concealed. “There are two small hatch covers here on the nose. I wonder if they’re for some type of energy weapon?”

  “Hard to tell,” Jason replied as he and Adam walked over to stand next to Greg. “Perhaps we’ll know more after we talk to Ariel again.”

  Greg shined his light up higher, and they could see windows in what was clearly the cockpit for the shuttle. The windows were dark and undoubtedly made of some type of strong glass. Greg realized it might not be glass at all, just some clear material that the other humans had used for their cockpit windows.

  “Ariel said we can access the shuttle from the hatch on the other side,” Adam commented as he gazed in awe at the shuttle. “She said it should be easy to open.”

  “I hope so,” responded Jason, turning to look at Adam. “If we can’t get into the shuttle, Ariel’s plan for getting more powe
r won’t work.”

  “We’ll get in! Do you realize that this ship has more capabilities than anything Earth has ever launched?” Adam said, animatedly. “According to Ariel, this shuttle is equipped with a sublight drive as well as limited FTL capability. If we could get this shuttle back down to Earth and build more like her, we could be exploring the entire Solar System in just a matter of a few years.”

  “That would be something,” commented Gregg, trying to imagine what it would be like to fly to Mars or the other planets in just a matter of a few hours. It was hard to comprehend. He would like to be on one of the flights to Mars. The red planet had always intrigued him.

  The three walked around the shuttle and found the entrance hatch. Jason reached forward and touched a small control panel. He punched in a short string of numbers and waited expectantly. Ariel had given them the command codes necessary to enter the shuttle. The hatch slid open, and the three stepped cautiously inside. They found themselves in a small room that was obviously used for passengers. A dozen comfortable seats were against the walls. In the rear, another closed hatch obviously led to the engine compartment, and an open hatch in the front led to the cockpit.

  Jason stepped through the front hatch and found himself in a small but efficient cockpit. There were four seats. There were two for the pilot and copilot, and two more seats on the sides in front of other consoles for two other crewmembers. The small cockpit was full of controls and instruments. It reminded him of other cockpits he had been in.

  Jason wondered what it would feel like to fly something like this. He could recall the exhilarating thrills back in his test pilot days when he had flown experimental jets. The first few times flying this shuttle would be very similar.

  Adam stepped around Jason and looked at a printout he was carrying. He moved over and checked a control panel next to one of the side consoles. Several screens on the panel were glowing dimly. “Battery power is at twelve percent; not enough to jump start the shuttle’s main power source. We were expecting that.”

  “So we need to lug the other RTG power source down here and hook it up to this shuttle,” commented Greg, grimacing at the thought of dragging the unit down all those corridors and stairs.

  “It won’t be that hard,” replied Jason, knowing what Greg was thinking. “It will just be tedious and something that has to be done.” Turning to Adam, he asked. “Do you see any problems with hooking our power source up to the shuttle?”

  “No,” answered Adam, standing up from where he had been bending over the console. “With the information that Ariel has given us, it should be quite simple.”

  “Let’s go back and get the RTG then,” Jason said. “The sooner we get the power up in this shuttle, the sooner we’ll have easier access to the rest of the ship.”

  “I want to install the sensor relay before we leave,” Adam stated. “That will allow Ariel to monitor what we’re doing, and she can talk us through any problems we might run into.”

  “Very well,” replied Jason, nodding his head in agreement. “Let’s get the relay installed and then we can go get the RTG.”

  Chapter Six

  Two days later, everyone waited expectantly to see what would happen when power was restored to the undamaged sections of the ship. Greg and Adam were down in the flight bay, and the rest were in the Command Center.

  “Should be any time now,” spoke Marcus, glancing down at his watch.

  Without warning, the panels in the Command Center all lit up, and the overhead lights panels came on brilliantly. They all jumped when one of the panels exploded in a shower of sparks.

  “Don’t panic,” Ariel spoke quickly. “It was just a power surge.”

  She was busily adjusting the power coming from the shuttle, rapidly shutting down areas of the ship that were damaged or where power wasn’t needed. There were numerous areas where power leads were broken or completely nonexistent. It took her several minutes to seal off all the areas where she didn’t want power going. The only areas that needed power were the flight bay, the area around the Command Center, and the central section. Once she was satisfied everything was working properly, she issued some specific commands to the computer to allow it to monitor the power.

  “What’s happening, Ariel?” Lisa asked, concerned. Her eyes were frantically looking around the Command Center for any other problems. The exploding overhead light had shaken her up considerably.

  “I’m scanning the ship to see what other resources may be available for power. The primary and secondary high-energy fusion reactors were destroyed or damaged in the initial explosion that took out the sublight and FTL systems. The resulting crash caused further damage.”

  “Are there other power sources on the ship?” Colonel Greene asked. This was something Ariel hadn’t mentioned before.

  “There is a small emergency reactor for the weapon systems which I am trying to access to determine its usability.”

  “Is it safe to turn on after all these years?” Colonel Greene asked, nervously. He didn’t want to see the wrecked ship blow up in a massive explosion. If the human race was to have a chance against the Hocklyns, they had to preserve what was left of the Avenger.

  “Quite safe,” Ariel replied with a gentle smile. “There are sufficient fail safes and redundancies built into the Avenger’s systems to prevent a core breach or a failure of any of the reactor’s primary systems.”

  “That’s a relief,” spoke Greg, shaking his head. “I didn’t really want to glow in the dark.”

  Ariel was quiet for a moment, and then a pleased smile appeared on her young face. “Reactor has been activated, and power is coming online. Standby for reactivation of artificial gravity field.”

  “What?” Jason stammered as he suddenly felt his weight increase until it was normal. “How the hell did you do that?”

  Ariel looked embarrassed as she gazed at Jason. “Oh, did I forget to mention that all Federation ships have an artificial gravity field? The field is also used to counter excessive acceleration and deceleration. The ship can maneuver at speeds of up to twelve gravities with no harmful effects to the crew. Or at least the Avenger used to be able to do that before it crashed.”

  -

  Two hours later, all six explorers were down in the center section. Power had been restored, and the environmental control systems were working. Ariel had directed them to a section where the ship’s officers had stayed. The quarters in this area were roomy and extremely comfortable.

  “A real bed,” Greg spoke with a wide grin, looking into one of the spacious rooms. Some cleaning and organizing and the quarters would be livable.

  “We need more people up here,” spoke Colonel Greene, glancing into the quarters he had chosen. “Ariel says the ship’s oxygen is recyclable and should last for several more years, even with a larger group of people on board.”

  Lisa came out of the quarters she had chosen with a big smile on her face. “We actually have running water and toilets!”

  “What about the bodies in the medical center?” Greg asked with concern.

  “Ariel is keeping the temperature in those rooms at a low enough temperature to preserve them,” Colonel Greene responded. “That won’t be a problem.”

  “What’s next?” Adam asked.

  Having the environmental systems back up and running would allow them to check out more of the ship’s systems and the science behind them. Working in the cumbersome spacesuits was a pain. Now, in many areas, they might not have to.

  “I want us all to meet in a couple of hours after we get our quarters organized,” Greene spoke with a thoughtful look on his face. “We need to go over everything we’ve learned so far and figure out our next steps. Having the power on is going to make a big difference in our explorations of this ship.”

  “We’ve learned a lot in the last few days,” added Jason, nodding his head in agreement. “This ship and Ariel have a lot to teach us.”

  “We have to learn and learn quickly,” contin
ued Colonel Greene, agreeing with Jason. “Every moment lost is one moment closer to the Hocklyns finding us. We must begin preparing for that day as soon as possible. The future of the human race may rest with what we learn from this ship.”

  -

  All six of the explorers were sitting in a small conference room next to the Command Center. Jason wondered what kind of meetings might have been held in this room in years past. He could imagine the commander standing at the front of the table and explaining to his officers the latest developments in the war. Jason could scarcely imagine how it had affected them when their worlds had been destroyed and they found themselves powerless to stop it.

  “Okay, let’s get this meeting started,” spoke Colonel Greene, setting down a pile of reports and photographs on the table in front of him. “Lisa, if you will begin, please tell us what you’ve found out about the AI and the worlds this ship came from.”

  Lisa nodded and brushed a strand of wayward blonde hair out of her eyes. “First, let’s start with the AI. I don’t believe Ariel is a true AI.”

  “What?” Greg stammered in confusion. “She sure seems real enough to me.”

  “She is a highly sophisticated computer with some very advanced programming,” Lisa explained. “This programming allows her to act and to respond as if she is a real person. The programming I have examined so far allows her a limited amount of freedom to make some decisions on her own. Even so, these programs do control her actions, and she can’t violate them.”

  “Interesting,” commented Colonel Greene, leaning back in his chair. “What about the human worlds this ship came from?”

  “I did manage to get that information from Ariel,” continued Lisa, nodding her head. She turned her deep blue eyes toward the colonel. “The Human Federation of Worlds comprised five inhabited solar systems and a number of scientific and mining outposts in approximately twenty others.”

  “Sounds impressive,” spoke Jason, wondering how long it would take for Earth to grow that large. He leaned forward. “Do you know what their population was?”